Appointing Julie Christensen to San Francisco's District 3 supervisor seat was meant to be Mayor Ed Lee's best shot at consolidating his moderate allies and their slight majority on the Board of Supervisors. Instead, it's exposing curious cleavages in the city's political establishment.
District 3, which covers the city's northeastern corner (including Fisherman's Wharf and Chinatown) has been the epicenter of an escalating series of political tremors since David Chiu, former president of the Board of Supervisors, was elected to the state Assembly last November. Chiu's twice-fought victories against the more progressive Supervisor David Campos for an Assembly seat had taken on some existential trappings — the race was seen as San Francisco's current political climate in microcosm, with moderates firmly in the ascendant.
Lee's chosen successor for Chiu, Christensen, is a Telegraph Hill resident, businesswoman, and a member of the urban planning organization SPUR's advisory board. In spite of populist actions such as calling for Airbnb to pay its back taxes, the newly minted supervisor ran into trouble recently over the hot-button issue of evictions in Chinatown. Lee and Christensen's intervention in a dispute over rents at an SRO conveniently located near a tech shuttle route appears to have rubbed local activists the wrong way. Although the eviction notice was withdrawn, it could very well be a temporary measure, meaning that the renters' reprieve might last only as long as Christensen needs it to get re-elected.
That sounds cynical, but the ill will is there. It should be noted that after law school, Mayor Lee worked for the San Francisco Asian Law Caucus as a housing rights advocate, which makes housing in Chinatown a curious area for him to draw ire.
Meanwhile, of Christensen, erstwhile mayoral ally Rose Pak tells The Examiner, "She doesn't know jack shit about Chinatown."
Beyond the continued dissolution of Lee's and Pak's partnership, the net result of this kerfuffle is that Aaron Peskin, another former president of the Board of Supes, has now declared his candidacy for his old seat. Often referred to by the loaded term "firebrand," Peskin is undoubtedly a full-throated politician — and now one with Pak's endorsement. (Sadly, unlike current board President London Breed, Peskin doesn't tweet.) But should he beat Christensen in November, the Board could end up with a 6-5 progressive majority, after a showdown between the mayor and the woman once regarded as his mastermind.
Strangely enough, this outcome mirrors what some voters, worrying that a Campos victory would result in the mayor appointing a pro-development moderate to his Mission-based seat, had envisioned. It sounds a bit like playing nine-dimensional political chess, but sending David Chiu to the Assembly might just make San Francisco progressives, so accustomed to licking their wounds for almost a decade, very happy.
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